Jungian Veins In Philip Larkin’s Poetry:

Tamer Tawfik Saudi

Philip Larkin’s life and poetry are by all means influenced by Carl Gustav Jung’s writings in general and his theory of Individuation in particular. This research offers many proofs, whether in facts of life or creative works, that substantiate this assumption. Most of Larkin’s poems are a sincere translation of his perpetual strife to attain successfully his fully individuated self by means of being identified and integrated with the different archetypes of his collective unconscious. Larkin’s early poems published in The North Ship alludes to the poet’s struggling attempt to be identified and integrated with his shadow archetype. Larkin’s inner journey towards the identification of his anima archetype passed through four distinctive phases: the early glimpses of The North Ship, the feminine mask of the Brunette Coleman’s writings, the different female identities portrayed in The Less Deceived, reaching its culmination in the larger philosophical perspective and mature awareness in The Whitsun Weddings. The culmination of the process of individuation was reached by Larkin when he enjoyed and was beatified with moments of epiphany especially his final collection High Windows.